Communication devices such as personal computers, wireless mobile devices, smart telephones, personal data assistants, etc. often provide data communication abilities to users. One currently popular form of such communication is Instant Messaging (IM) facilitated by a client application having a graphical user interface (GUI) whereby two or more users of respective communication devices can engage in a conversational data communication exchange.
To permit IM message exchanges, a user may invite another to agree to receive IM messages and be included in the user's list of IM contacts (sometimes called an IM friend or buddy in view of the agreement to be a potential IM message recipient). The availability of particular contacts for conversations may be maintained in accordance with respective presence information. To begin an IM conversation, a user selects a contact represented by a contact list entry of a list of contacts and inputs a message. Additional contacts may be invited to engage in a group message, as desired. While IM messaging was originally limited to text, newer protocols support file transports and voice over data communications. In addition to conducting conversations, an IM user may invite a buddy to engage in an on-line game where two (or more players) take turns during game play to compete against each other. Conventional board and card games such as checkers or poker may be adapted for IM game playing for example, among others.
IM communications between client devices are facilitated by IM servers, which in an enterprise context such as a business serving a plurality of client devices, is an enterprise server providing IM services (hereinafter “an enterprise IM server”). Client devices of a particular enterprise communicate IM communications through that enterprises' enterprise IM server (or servers). The enterprise IM server may provide functions to the client devices such as contact list management, presence information management, message routing, logging and archiving, encryption, security (e.g. virus scanning), authentication, etc.
Enterprise IM servers are commercially available from different entities such as the IBM Lotus Sametime™ of International Business Machine Corporation, Novell GroupWise® of Novell, Inc., Microsoft® Office Live Communications Server from Microsoft Corporation, among others. Such servers may be used with a variety of client devices, including wireless mobile devices such as smart phones and PDAs, PCs and other devices available from potentially many different manufacturers or providers. Client devices may be configured for running client-side IM applications which may originate from the client device provider or from yet other application providers.
Often when a client device is configured prior to entering the marketplace for eventual distribution to a user, the enterprise IM server with which the device is intended to be used is unknown. Occasionally, a particular client device may be used with different enterprise IM servers over its lifetime. It is thus desirable to configure IM applications for execution on a client device that may be compatible with more than one enterprise IM server. Similarly it is desirable to configure enterprise IM servers to enable IM communications with different client devices.
A solution to one or more of these needs is therefore desired.